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Do we still need local Post Offices or does the fact they're losing money mean we don't?

Joseph and Frances Johns
We need Post Offices for the community as a whole. They not only provide an excellent service, especiallySomerville Post Office, the Poulton Road, Wallasey, but for many, are just about the right distance enabling them to walk to this particular post office.The staff in Somerville Post Office are pleasant and efficient. If this Post Office closes, it will be disastrous for the community which covers not only Gorsedale Road, Rycroft Road, and all the adjoining roads, but also on the opposite side of Poulton Road, Parkside, Hampstead Road and all the adjoining roads to those also.The nearest Post office for any of these addresses is too far for those with walking disabilities and those people who want to stay in touch with their community.Please keep this Post Office open, in fact reconsider on any closures that could disrupt communities.Thank YouJ b Johns

Andrew West
I notice a few of you complaining that it your local post office will make it more difficult for you to collect your benefits. Good. Perhaps you will find it more convienient to get a job!

SBC
When a Sub-Postmaster is appointed the Post Office have a uniques scheme in which they retain 25% of the Sub-Postmaster annual salary during the first year. This figure is never reimbursed to the Sub-Postmaster. Perhaps the Post Office should consider using some of these funds to support the existing Post Offices to better serve their existing customer base and hopefully develop this further. Or have they nothing left and their recent advertising campaign using expensive 'd' list celebs? Exactly who is this organisation accountable too?

Richard Nicholson
A local Post Office is vital to a local community. I have walked to my local Post Office of Christleton most working days for the past 30 years. It is now faced with closure which means I will need to take my business mail in a car. That is not very green. How those people who will have to use public transport which is also getting the chop will cope I cannot imagine. The losing of money is totally down to deplorable management. The present government will pay dearly at the next election for allowing so many closures of local Post Offices.

david warner
it seems strange that the p.o. is spending millions on tv adverts to get us to use p.o's that are going to close?. also who can forget that they also squandered millions of pounds on a pointles change of name to insignia. i will have to spend £1.90 in bus fares to get to my alternative p.o if my local branch closes. this means i will use the p.o services less and less instead of more.

Mrs Rita Anderson
The closure of Aintree Road/Fernhill Road PO will make things very difficult for me as an elderly woman with mobility difficulties who also has caring responsibility for my disabled husband and elderly disabled friend. I use this post office regularly to withdraw our pensions, I can park outside it and then use the local chemist, supermarket and butchers. The alternative POs that are supposed to be within easy reach are far from convenient. Local POs should be just that - local - so that the elderly and people with reduced mobility can access the PO services.

Ann MCDonnell
Our community needs its post offices - I have seen a decline in small retail shops in my local area from when we lost our PO - due to folk going elsewhere to get their money out - or being forced to use bank accounts - now Rawson Rd PO is set to close and this will be a terrible loss to that community - can more sub post offices be made worthwhile in local shops - Ann McDonnell

Ken Forshaw
As many have already said of other areas, my local Post Office at the Rocket is the focal point of a small shopping area which serves the elderly, infirm and the not so well off who cannot afford the cost of travel or are able to travel to a 'Nearby Post Office' Not only are the community losing a valuable service also many local shops adjacent will lose customers and face closure, with the loss of jobs not only to Post Office Staff but will include other shop workers. It really is the beginning of the Domino effect. We should resist these proposals, or the community spirit as we know it today and which keeps the communitys together in times of adversity will go for ever and that will be a bad day for the people of Great Britain.

Mr G. Daley
No consideration whatever for the eldely and disabled, action should be taken.

Anna Duffy
A lot of post offices supply a social and necessary service to the local community.

Allan Sherratt
The local Post Office plays an important and integral part of community life. Why should it have to make a profit ? They should not be seen as money making enterprises. Why does the £ seemingly have to rule everything we do nowadays, when we are quite prepared to throw billions of pounds at a war we don't want. Labour 'The Peoples Government' closing down 'The Peoples Post Offices'. They should hang their heads in shame.Allan

David Ward
The current campaign to get rid of allegedly uneconomic post offices is scandalous. It is one of the worst examples of lack of consultation with people on the ground...one of the qualities our new Prime Minister claims he wants to see strengthened in our society. In Maghull and Lydiate we have already lost 3 sub post offices in recent years and now the one remaining post office in Lydiate is also on the list of those scheduled for closure. Not very convenient for those who would like to send parcels or gifts to friends and family for Christmas. It is true that we can buy certain categories of postage stamps at other outlets now, but not every possible denomination of stamp. Try buying a 54p stamp at a supermarket! Letters of protest to governments abroad that mistreat their citizens need a 54p stamp. From the announcement made on N.W. Tonight on the TV, it sounds as though the plan is to force every citizen to walk one mile to their nearest post office. Has any thought been given to the fact that our population is ageing? We already have more people over 65 than we have teenagers. Fewer and fewer pensioners will be able to walk the required mile as the years progress. Many of us still support out local post office by paying bills there and collecting the state pension. The alternative is to favour the commercial banks. Why should we give the banks even more money than they already possess and which, as we have seen in the recent summer months, some of them misuse? Just because a public service may be expensive, does that necessitate its abolition? Will the government therefore consider abolishing the armed forces?

Mike Davies
The profits of GPO should offset those struggling locally who support the struggling elderly. Most will have to travel by bus into town then walk twice as far from a bus stop to do their business. This comment will fall on deaf ears like so many others. PO services should make it more attractive to the customer to encourage more business.

julia cheshire
i work in a post office - as yet we don't know if we'll be one of the lucky ones to stay open. We provide a good service,our customers are lovely and we love our jobs. But i didn't join the post ofice to sell mortgages, loans, credit cards and broadband - leave that to the people that enjoy that work,also we don't get any extra pay for selling and believe me, not all clerks are on £7 an hour - we are on minimum wage!i hav another 15 years or so of employment age left and the thought of startin a new career terrifies me! What a waste of all that post office knowledge we've all learned over the years just to be told thats the end of the line!! These people just don't give any support we're just numbers and if they don't add up we have to go!

Linda - Sankey Green
There has been a post office on Lovely Lane for over 50 years and I am sure the Sankey Green Post Office was not used as much 30 years ago as it is now. The pensioners, the majority of whom have disabilities, (as well as young mothers without transport), will be expected to travel by public transport/taxis to the town centre for their benefits (there are also no banks in the area) - this is a terrible way to treat our older generation and the stress this will cause has not been considered at all. Most of the people who actually bother to vote at the elections are the senior citizens, and this is how they are treated!!

norma and john pitt
we are both disabled the post office in cambridge road st. helens is the only place we can get to to get our pension as that is only 200 yards from were we live if this post office closes we would have to get some one to take us for our pension as we have no other way of getting any were else on our own

stan
my post office has already been closed,its alright for able bodied people to go to a post office thats within a mile but for the elderly and disabled this is not the case, I now have to get a Taxi, and when I get there there is always a Long queue, and no seats are provided, old people like myself cannot stand in queues its TOO Damn Painful.

Neil
This again is another step towards selling off the whole royal mail group, get rid of the bits that don,t make a profit and the rest will look better to an investor, I work within royal mail and the decline in the service in the 7 years I have been there has been rapid, but please don,t blame the people on the shop floor its a government iniative fronted by leighton and crozier who have no thought except profit.

Frank Mullen
The Post Office is spending millions on adverts about how good the P.O. is it would be better spending it on keeping them open.Local banks closing down what next, God help the elderly that have to walk that extra mile.

kendo
Here in Runcorn, Halton Brook P O was closed in the last round of cuts. So we moved our buisiness to Stenhills only for this to be earmarked for closure.As a pensioner I am able to drive there. What I will do if I become unable to do so is very worrying.To put the blame on the postal workers is rediculous,they go out on strike about once in a decade, if that.

S Wright
To close the post office in Somerville, Poulton road, Wallasey, is very, very unfair! there are a great many families with small children and many older people living in the area around the Post Office, and it is NOT easy for a Mother with small children and/or babies to get on a bus to go to the nearest Post Office, even if they could afford the bus fares! Also many older folk CAN'T get on buses!! so how do these people get their benifit payments??I like many other people on benifits do NOT have a bank account so if we can't go to our LOCAL Post Office what do we do?!? S Wright

Moira
Postmasters are self employed not all of them are making a living. Maybe some of them need to close to make remaining ones viable.

peterashton44@blueyonder.co.uk
you cannot expect a 70 year old pensioner with a arthritic hip to walk a mile to a post office to collect a pension and a mile backyou either supply a local service or you dont the 70 year old pensioner is not a vote catcher for the labour party that is the reason the post office is not a viable buisness

peterashton44@blueyonder.co.uk
you cannot expect a 70 year old pensioner with a arthritic hip to walk a mile to a post office to collect a pension and a mile backyou either supply a local service or you dont the 70 year old pensioner is not a vote catcher for the labour party that is the reason the post office is not a viable buisness

BeBe
I hope people remember all this when and i mean when voting day comes round. Remember you get what you vote in if you sit back and be a doormat folk will wipe there feet on you. Enough said.

David Watkinson
Strange how none of this was known when the DWP virtually forced people on benefits to open post office accounts so that they could still get their benefits, where do these people go know especially the OAPs in rural areas who have been totally conned by their elected government.

John V Catherall
Post Offices were introduced as a 'service' and as such must be retained. They supply more than simply a 'service' in many areas and as such must be kept operating as are other services such as Fire Service, Police, Councils etc

Vicki Insley
Just because the local Post Offices are losing money does not mean that they are no longer needed, it simply means that they are not run well enough and the service they provide is not up to scratch, so people go elsewhere to send mail (i.e. the internet) or to send parcels (e.g. FedEx). If they improve the services and increase the number of branches then the service will run efficiently and cost effectively.

olivia
there is a shop near an old folks home in netherton wh have a post office right by them and if their post office closed down they would go through alot of trouble trying to get to another post office.

Mark
The consultation process will be a sham, when was the last time a PO wasn't closed. The Merseyside area has been hit with closures for several years and the industry watchdog Postcom has done nothing to save them. The PO union has highlighted time and time again what the future holds for the PO maybe now the public will sit up and listen. The main PO in St Johns is due to transfer to WH Smith another public service point lost.

John Cooney
All the Post Offices that are on the list are vital to the people that live around them and it will make it very difficult fore them because they will have to go further to get there pensions and any other items they need like paying bills, etc. But then the 'Government' are not really that interested in what the people want.

Craig
Its pathetic it truly suck, they are running new media adverts promoting the post office and then close them, how stupid is that, the elderly, the infirm, the ones with out private transport, the single parents who have to lug around a child, all are being made to suffer, and I bet some CEO will get a huge bonus for this shambles

Louise Aspinall
I hate our post office (the Bootle Strand) It is dark and scruffy and the queue is so long sometimes I don't bother and when I have to and stand in the long queue on my precious dinner time the people are really unhappy who serve me. If I could get my car tax or post my christmas pressy's any were else I would. It is like years of giving people there giros have drained the life force out of them. YUK

Rosemary
Post Offices MUST BE KEPT OPEN in small villages as they are the heart of the community for YOUNG and especially the ELDERLY

Les H Widnes
Another nail in the coffin of public services.When they close Birchfield Road people will have to go to Albert Square, this branch is a bursting point during the busy patrs of the day one can stand in line for twenty minutes.That is ridiculous for elderly people.The Post Office is deliberatly being wound down in a short while pensions will have to be paid into a bank account with no options available. Crozier should have stuck to football he is the cause of all this loss of business in the name of profit which they are not making as they are not capable of competing with the privste sector easier to close them down

Sarah
The fact that they are losing money is indicative of the fact that the organisation is being forced (as British Rail was) to sell off the most profitable parts of their business, while having to keep the bits that nobody else would want (like universal delivery to every house in the UK on which they lose millions daily). Some people do desperately still need Post Offices but unfortunately, they are the 'have nots' in our society. The people who don't make the Post Office a lot of money, have no voice and won't kick up a huge fuss when they are closed down but will suffer the most when they do. For all the talk about reversing inequalities, actually the opposite is happening here. Research by Experian (who monitor transactions in the UK today and are known by most people as the providers of credit histories) shows that people will no bank accounts (a shockingly sizable percentage of the UK population) use the Post Office to pay their bills. What this boils down to is that people - and the Government - need to decide what they want the Post Office to be. Is it an organisation with a social role which should be supported as such, so that branches can stay open regardless of whether they make money beacuse they fulfill an important social function? Or is it a business which needs to be profitable? If it is a business, it can't keep unprofitable branches open and deliver to every home (that will be the next thing to go). At the moment, we want both, but there needs to be some recognition that we can't have both, and a choice needs to be made.

Andrew Kay
Certainly we need local Post Offices - for the elderly and infirm. We have a lady in our road who has to use a walking frame to get out to the shops. Do the Government expect her to struggle for 2 miles (Round Trip) on her zimmer??! There is also a gentleman 2 doors from me who requires a motorised scooter to get about. Is he expected to make that same journey just to post a parcel, or draw money from his account??!I have a small business which relies on the postal service. At the moment, when I receive an order I walk 300 yards to my local Post Office to despatch that order. When (If) our local Post Office closes, I will need to make several car journeys per day to achieve the same objective - expensive and not very green!!It will have a very negative effect upon my business.I cannot help feeling that the government has engineered the downfall of the Post Office, by having moved most of the traditional Post Office functions elswhere, over the past few years.

steev wroe
We must strongly say "No to Post office closures"- it is all part of New Labour's wild and wacky plans to first run down, then close post offices. Firstly they introduced Direct Payments of benefits into bank accounts whcih further disbled the old and sick, then they have stopped giros generally. Having stripped them of most of their business they then open them up to unfair competition with European firms who are able to chery pick their delivery business, thereby forcing poorer wages and conditions on Royal Mail workers in the name of efficiency. If this is not a cunning plan then it is a disastrous failure of government. It reminds me of Thatcher privatising/reducing British Steel production, with consequent disastrous knock-on effects on car production and ship building and finally the closure of the mines which had supplied the coal to fire the steel furnaces in the first place. Does New Labour really hate the working classes as much as Thatcher hated the unions and Scargill???

Dave Langshaw
Maybe if the dinosaurs didn't strike every two minutes then the Post Office wouldn't lose money. "The People's Post Office - that the people don't have access to"

ian
Yes we do for the sake of the elderly at leased,These people need some were local to get there pensions and other bits an bobs. This goverment says there will be a post office within 1 mile of each pensioners home. This will not be true if they close any more in St Helens.

Barbara Woodyatt
Of course we need local Post Offices! What about the elderly, infirm, those without cars etc. etc. etc. The Post Office is a vital local service. My own Post Office is extremely busy nearly all day and I myself use it on a daily basis, sending up to 100 parcels a week, as do dozens of other people. If they are losing money, why are they advertising services on TV if we won't be able to access them!!!!!

stephen sinclair
The reason Post offices are losing money is simple. This Labour government has deliberatly set about making sure that they would be unsustainable. How did they do this? By withdrawing the services post offices maintained, such as tv license renewals, payment books for pensioners and child benefit being paid by direct debit. The government knew what they were doing, this was no accident.

Ian Betts
Yes we still need post offices for parcel they are not losing money since benefit been paid in to the bank

Andrew, Halewood
Its immaterial whether or not Post Offices loose money at all, they are a public SERVICE and should remain whatever the profit level. I actually use the local post office quite often, the only other one is in Woolton which is hardly convient for older people.

Cheryl, Halewood Village
I think its a shame that we are going to loose our post office in the village. So many local residents go there and for many of the older residents this is the only time out they get, chat to others locally. Such a shame to a local friendly post office,I'm saddened to see it close.

Steve, Chester
Claims are all very well and statistics make situations sound as if there will be little or no inconvenience or change. We all know most people will be inconvenienced by closures on the proposed scale, not least of all the staff of the Post Offices themselves. Seven are going in Chester alone. I know how that is going to affect locals - they will not be happy!

Susan Williams
We need local POs. There is no commercial network which does or could do anything like the same job. Profit cannot be the main issue; it is a matter of social necessity.

Pamela.D.Shennan
We as taxpayers subsidise all manner of useless institutions, and services. I consider that even if Post Offices do lose money they should be supported by the state as an essential service to the public.

DAVID THOMPSON
POST OFFICES ARE PART OF THE COMMUNITY...WE MUST KEEP THEM AT ALL COSTS.IT IS THE GOVERNMENTS DUTY TO GIVE MORE PROSDUCTS TO THE POST OFFICES TO KEEP THEM SECURE.

Ray, Runcorn
During the last phase of closures the residents of higher Runcorn lost two post offices within the locality Weston Village and Highlands Road. As a disabled customer Stenhills is now my 'local' post office but once again we are being forced to travel extra distance and be inconvenienced for requiring a service.

barry bourne
Heswall post office offers a truly local service to many elderly people who live in Lower Heswall. This is another blow against local shops and local democracy, then whenever was this government in favour of either? We should form a local pressure group and fight this attack on a thriving and needed local amenity. After all this Government wastes billions of pounds compared with the petty millions saved by such closures.

Mike Whittaker
Of course we must fight to keep our Post Office's.We, the public have stood by and watched this government erode our rights and way of life for far too long.Make a stand now

Pat Fenna
My 88 year old mother was not allowed to open a bank abank account because she did not have a passport, driving licence or relevent documents, possible suspect for money laundering without those documents! The p.o. is the only money line for people like my mum.

IAN WILSON
POST OFFICES ARE THE HEART OF LOCAL COMMUNITIES, AND IN THE LIGHT OF SUPERMARKET DOMINATION, ARE NEEDED MORE THAN EVER, DESPITE THE SHORT SIGHTEDNESS OF SO CALLED MODERN EXPERTS. THE PRESENT GOVERNMENT HAVE MADE IT DIFFICULT FOR SMALL BUSINESS TO SURVIVE.

john Whitehead
Recent press said advisors were being paid £300 per hour to advise te government on post office closures. Should this amount of money be spent on searching for ways to keep ost offices open instead? It seems to me time that the post office was put on the same footing as all the private companes creaming off the lucrative postal buisness by main them have the same legal requirement of delivery to every postal address in britain.

Colin Jones
Of course we need LO~CAL ost Office. Many people do not have their own transport, especially the elderly. How are they supposed to use them if they cannot get to them.

gegs88
post office losing money? can't be, they can afford to pay second rate celebs to advertise the peoples post office, pity the people they are advertising it to will be the ones losing out,,,, nice on post office hope you can sleep easy!!!!

Diedre Taylor
They are an essential focus for many small communities, for pensioners and youngsters alike. Lots of information in the Post Office with friendly staff who know their customers!

James
Post offices may be loosing money, fair enough, they have to close, can the staff at the closed branches be relocated to other sites and kep their employment.

Graham Guntrip
We still need local Post Offices. They provide a valuable service and should be funded by the state.

Paul Aspinall
Without 'local' Post Offices some villages will die as they are often the hub of village life. With the population getting older by the year, surely it is common sense to keep the number of post offices as they are. More travelling, means more pollution etc etc. New Labour? No thank you.

James Howard
Bizarre that the Post Office have recently begun a tv advertising campaign with the likes of Wendy Richard and Westlife, praising the range of services that can be found at 'Your' Post Office - if you can find one, that is....

tony davey
we need post offices. we use them, not the people who decide there fate.the government are paying back the favours owed to the banks in the form of millions of new customers.incidentally i live off wavertree high street and there is no post office within a mile of my home so i have to travel to town or old swan.

Pete Barker
The post office in Lower Heswall always has customers and always seems busy so clearly the decisions are politically based not economically based.

Mr E Slater
As disabled pensioners we use Padgate Post Office Warrington as opposite is good parking facilites which are not available at Paddington Post Office and Warrington town center.E Slater (Mr)

Rose Priestley
we do need our post offices they are vital to us pensioners dont take every thing away from us we are penalised every way leave our post offices alone

John Broughall
In the area I live in, three of the six Post Offices have been closed down.Many hundreds of people like me now have their pension paid direct to their Bank. I now buy my stamps, envelopes and other stationary from a local confectioner. This means that the Post Office has lost hundreds of customers. No wonder they are loosing money.

ben,pensby
post office are always so busy that you have to form queues to be served. I know all the other shopkeepers wished they could have so many customers each day.

Alan Green
Old people will now have to travel a lot further to pay their bills and collect their pension. I thought that the Post Office was there as a service to the public. Does no one care anymore. Surely some services are more important than the need to make a profit

JAMES MILLS
TO CLOSE THE LOCAL P.O. WOULD CREATE A HOLE, THAT WOULD BE VERY DIFFICULT FOR THE LOCAL COMMUNITY TO FILL. I FOR ONE, KNOW ONLY TOO WELL HOW OUR LOCAL P.O. WORKS, AND SHOULD I NEED TO GO TO ONE THAT IS FURTHER AWAY. IT WOULD BE ONLY TOO OBVIOUS THAT THERE WOULD BE A MORE THAN NORMAL EXTENDED QUEUE AND WAIT, AND I WOULD ALSO FEEL A SENSE OF ALIENATION. I USE MY LOCAL P.O. QUITE A LOT, PLUS I AM DISABLED. THIS TOO WOULD BE AN EVEN BIGGER BURDEN. I AM ALL FOR MODERNISATION, BUT NOT AT THE COST OF "WHO WILL GO TO THE P.O. FOR ME". THEY SAY THAT, UNDER THE PROPOSALS. NO ONE SHOULD BE MORE THAN A MILE AWAY, BUT WHAT ABOUT THE MILE BACK! 2 MILES IS A LONG WAY FOR SOME PENSIONERS

s wood
Yes we do still need these post offices they provide a wonderful service.

Keith Felton Wirral
An other nail in the coffin of the local community.When will they ever learn.

K. Le Marinel
The post office is asking for trouble, you have only got to look who is running it. YES Adam crossier,errrr he made a mess of running football as well.

Nona Denholm
Yes we do still need post offices they are the life blood of the people. Not everyone in todays Society owns a car, a bank account, or is able to get from a to b without great difficulty. It is like cutting off the legs of us old age pensioners.

Phil Mckie
I find the announcement of the closures rather strange as the post office is running a series of TV adverts parading their sevices.Whats the point of that ?

Brian Bowyer
The post office on Church Rd Birkenhead is in the centre of new OAP accomodation and it would be a real shame and incnvenience to all in the neighbourhood, This action should be reconsidered for all our sakes.From Brian Bowyer, an OAP living in Tranmere, who will soon have to travel some distance to get to a post office, even though I am unable to walk properly !

ebwilkinson (do not publish).
We need a return to deliveries at 7.30 am.,courtesy,reliability,Sunday collections,second deliveries, scrap first/second class and "large", leave postoffices and get rid of management and union leaders. Start again!

alan anderson
The local post offices are an essential SERVICE not a governmental budgetry toy.Old people rely on them for more than their pension in this electronic age and certainly struggle with transport.

Mrs Anita Ward
I am so disappointed that our local post office in Lancelyn Court Spital is closing. Our post office is situated near to flats that most of our old folk live in! Also, there are a number of old folk on our estate who will sorely miss the Spital post office and having to walk an extra half a mile when you have breathing difficulties is no fun! I am very disappointed in this news and strongly advise that Spital post office stay open, if only for the old folk that use it!

Robert Jeffries, Handbridge, Chester
There are so many pensioners in Handbridge, it will rid the village of everyone. There are three schools and a college, and a whole row of shops, which has taken so long to build up and that compliment each other. No post office = no pensioners drawing money = no pensioner wanting to live in Handbridge = no shops benefiting from it due to lack of trade = small businesses closing.Pensioners don't want to travel up into town, the bus company isn't exactly the most helpful. No bus stops anywhere NEAR the post office in the city centre.Thank you for wanting to help wreck our village...my village...the village I want to come back to thriving in a few years time after I've been and come back from university.

Mrs Jones
this is discusting and with no thought given to the elderly people, whereby an outing to the post office may be their only social event. It's O.K to say we can make pension payments into bank accounts etc., not all pensioners feel confident or have bank accounts! We are so unlike many european countries who try to maintain their local services, so as to preserve the COMMUNITY SPIRIT and expressing their value of the eldery citizen.... from a young mother.

Anne Bellis
Of course we still need local post offices, What about the older generations who can not get out to drive or get a bus to the nearest POST OFFICE which in the Warrington Closures is all the small out of town communities, whose nearest branches will now be over 1 mile away. Not everyone has internet access and I for one prefer to visit a POST OFFICE when sending parcels, recorded mail, buying stamps, sending over seas and whole host of other services, PLus not forgetting the lost of work for many, and many of who have worked in the branches for many many years. This is just not FAIR !!!!

colin molloy
It was a public service and not everyone can use a bank or travel outside of area

daniel hunter
post offices are not losing money they are a part off peoples lives people dont want to travel to far to post a letter to there loved ones who dont live at home!!!!

Mrs M H Roberts
PO's should be regarded as a social provision for the elderly and less afluent.

J Candlin
Too much government short term thinking. The Post Office is an important social serrvice and community centre. The long term effects of the closure, particularly in rural areas has not been thought through.

David, Dingle
Why is it that ‘The Post Office’ has decided to close one of the friendliest post offices in Liverpool? I use the Mill Street branch and the staff that run it are the most pleasant, helpful staff around, they are far nicer than the staff in the Park Road branch. They definitely know their stuff and offer great customer service to their customers. They are going to be missed by their regular customers including my family and myself. I think it is an absolute disgrace that ‘The Post Office’ are trying to encourage us to use their outlets for a number of things like paying bills, exchange foreign currency and most of all sending letter and parcels. They are using every day celebrities like Joan Collins & Westlife to advertise these different services they offer (i.e. Broadband & foreign currency etc.) this is despite even closing so many local branches. Most of these local branches are the pillar of the community its sometimes where you meet an old friend or its the only time a pensioner see a friendly face. Also its where the local pensioners can get their weekly pension money from, they will now have to either walk further to their nearest open branch or get a family member to take them. All in all this is an inconvenient to everyone involved.I think everyone should join together and try to save your local post office. Who’s with me?

MRS. W. BRADLEY
WE CERTAINLY DO NEED OUR LOCAL POST OFFICES. FRESHFIELD POST OFFICE IS COMBINED WITH THE PHARMACY WHICH IN TURN SERVICES THE DOCTORS' SURGERY NEXT DOOR.THE AREA HAS A LARGE NUMBER OF ELDERLY &/OR INFIRM PEOPLE WHO CANNOT WALK THE MILE OR SO TO THE NEXT POST OFFICE IN FORMBY. ALSO ELDERLY PEOPLE HAVE THEIR BANK ACCOUNTS WITHIN THE POST OFFICE. THIS CLOSURE IS MOST UNFAIR AND IS PENALISING USERS OF THE POST OFFICE FOR THE SHORTCOMINGS OF THE POST OFFICE HEIRARCHY.

Liz Harrison
Yes we do, they often act as the hub of a community and when they die so does the neighbourhood

Michael Wright
I live near Rawson road and use the post office frequently. Both my wife and I are registered blind and it is verry much a part of everyday life. A number of people in this area are either elderly/disabled or don't have access to a bank account. The only method of obtaining cash in the locality other than the post office are fee charging ATMs. Closure of this post office will mean elderly and disabled people having to catch a bus or find alternative means of transport to either Waterloo or Bootle to get access to a post office. Closure of this and other post offices in similar localities will cause even more hardship to some of the most vulnrable members of society.

JJ
The post office in Aigburth Road needs to be closed. The service is so bad people have to get the bus into Garston to use the Post Office.

paul
i disagree with postoffices closing how are old people and parcialy people going to get there money even blind people and disabled people

Gillian Cannon
Local post offices offer a vital service. My closest branch has already closed & now I see the name of my next closest one on the above list of planned closures!

Louise McCarthy
The fact that they are losing money is nothing to do with the people who use the post offices, but due to the mis-management of the higher echelons. Why should we have to suffer from their incompetence?

Mark Leavesley
Post offices are NOT losing money! Royal Mail Group PLC. though,IS! The 'root' cause of this lies in Brussels with the 'Liberalisation' of postal markets in Europe, by the creation of an ufair playingfield that puts the 'national' mail carrier at a distinct disadvantage.Hence Royal Mail revenue is under attack by the likes of TNT and so too, is our community way of life, as a direct result of it. So the only option for Royal Mail appears to be, to 'slash costs', by 'centralisation' of services, and reducing the overall wagebill. And who suffers? All of us, under the disguise of the phrase, "Modernisation"!

Sue, Knowsley
Post offices are still an integral part of each community. The government has long had designs on closing them down forcing joe public to use the more lucrative banking services. They lose money because of the change over to direct banking for benefits etc. More capital should be input into royal mail / post office services. As far as I am concerned the post office is the most important (and busy)shop on the high street.